Demographic change and job losses are leading to a decline in the population of cities worldwide. RE-CITY Reviving Shrinking Cities aims to investigate innovative paths and perspectives towards liveability in shrinking cities. The international project, funded by the EUs Horizon 2020 research programme officially started in October 2018. The Kick-Off-Meeting on 11th and 12th October in Kaiserslautern brought together the participating research institutions and partner organisations to plan the upcoming steps.

Professor Pallagst from the Department of Spatial and Environmental Planning at Technische Universitaet Kaiserslautern is responsible for coordinating the project (Lead partner). Also involved are: TU Dortmund, the Universities of Amsterdam, Porto, and Guadalajara in Mexico, the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, the École Normale Supérieure Paris and the two consulting and research institutions "Cambridge Architectural Research" from England and "Spatial Foresight" from Luxembourg. The project also involves: The Bertelsmann Foundation, the Rhineland-Palatinate Energy Agency, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, the "Fresh" marine fish farm in Völklingen, Saarland, Kent State University from the USA, the Japanese Nomura Research Institute and the Netherlands Expert Center on Demographic Change.

At the time of the event, the search for doctoral students was already on track. Next to the interdisciplinary research on shrinking cities and demographic change from different angles like infrastructure, resilience, culture and migration, the RE-CITY project also promotes young scientists: Within the framework of a graduate school, 13 PhD students will conduct research in this international network from April 2019. RE-CITY offers the opportunity to work within a long existing network on shrinkage and being guided in a structured training programme to deal intensively with the topic in workshops, lectures and internships. The project partners will offer intensive training courses in which important knowledge is imparted, for example on demographic change. The aim is to specifically qualify the doctoral students so that they can then approach the topic innovatively as managers in public authorities, research institutions or the private sector.

The official start of the project was introduced by a press conference with Professor Pallagst and other members of the consortium and celebrated with a public evening event. A field trip to Fresh Völklingen (one of the partner organisations) finalized this first networking event.

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